SALTON SEA TARGETED FOR SPECIALTY LICENSE PLATE

While we may have the most boring standard- issue license plate in the United States, colorful specialty plates abound in California.

Several of them call attention to our state’s majestic and diverse scenery.

There is the ever-popular “whale tail” ocean plate and the Yosemite National Park plate. Another plate affords a glimpse of Lake Tahoe and raises money to protect that beautiful northern lake.

Soon we may have one that could help revive a dying lake here in Southern California.

At least that’s the hope of a Riverside County lawmaker. Assemblyman Brian Nestande, R-Palm Desert, has introduced legislation to create a specialty license plate for the Salton Sea, that large but beleaguered body of water that sprawls across eastern Riverside County and Imperial County.

His Assembly Bill 1096 would authorize the plate and allocate fee proceeds to a regional agency. The aim is to copy the success of the Tahoe plate, which has raised millions for that body of water.

“We plan to make a significant amount of money for the Salton Sea Authority for restoration,” Nestande said, saying it is beginning to dry up because of the Colorado River water transfer to San Diego and associated decline in farm water runoff into the sea. “It’s really in desperate need of restoration.”

So desperate that on one particularly muggy weekend in September a storm spread a pervasive rotten egg odor originating at the Salton Sea all the way to Los Angeles.

The Assembly Transportation Committee is expected to take up the bill Monday. If Nestande manages to sell lawmakers on it, you will need $50 to place an order for a Salton Sea plate.

According to state policy, orders for new plates must reach 7,500 before the Department of Motor Vehicles will give the OK for production.

“I’m very confident we will get well over 7,500,” Nestande said.

He also believes in the cause.

Salton Sea, created by an accident a century ago that diverted Colorado River water during canal building, actually had a heyday. A few decades ago, the body of water drew more visitors than did Yosemite, Nestande said.

“Sonny Bono learned to water ski on the Salton Sea as a kid,” he said.

And it remains an important stop for birds soaring along the Pacific Flyway.

“Having a lake in the middle of the desert is a great recreational benefit,” he said. “I think we can create that again.”